Australian scientists map long-elusive immune receptor behind brain inflammation
University of Queensland researchers, with partners in India, Japan and South Korea, mapped the structure of C5aR2, an immune receptor long linked to brain inflammation that had resisted study. Their new molecule R8Y is the first to bind it cleanly, in findings published in Molecular Cell. The team says the work could lead to anti-inflammatory drugs for hard-to-treat neurodegenerative diseases.
A drug built at the University of Queensland has given scientists the first clear view of C5aR2, an immune receptor on many immune cells that has long been tied to inflammation in the brain but resisted study because it does not couple to the usual G proteins. Working with the Indian Institute of Technology, the University of Tokyo and Sungkyunkwan University, the team used a molecule called R8Y to bind the receptor and map how it signals, published in Molecular Cell. Because chronic inflammation runs through motor neurone disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, a receptor no one could target had been a closed door. The group is now using the map to design safer anti-inflammatory drugs, and UQ professor Trent Woodruff says human testing in motor neurone disease patients could begin within five years. Research funded by FightMND and a National Health and Medical Research Council grant.